The Body Confession (Yukche-ui gobak) (1964)
 Director : Cho Keung-Ha
Production Company : Dong Seong Films Co., Ltd
Date of Rate : 1964-06-20
Running Time : 131 min.
Genre : Melodrama
Staff :
Writer : Kim Mun-Yeob
Opening Theater : Kukdo Theater
Screenplay(Adaptation) : Cho Keung-Ha
Producer : Jeong Byeong-Jun
Executive Producer : Kim Tae-Hyeon
Director of PhotoGraphy : Kim In-Yong
Gaffer : Lee Byeong-Jun
Music : Han Sang-Ki
Art Director : Lee Mun-Hyeon
Editor : Cho Keung-Ha
Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Hwang Jeong-Sun, Kim Seok-Hun, Tae Hyeon-Sil, Kim Hye-Jeong
Synopsis
Nightclub owner Madam (Hwang Jung-seun), known as "the President" in Busan's red light district, has made her money using any and all means, including prostitution and smuggling, in order to support her three daughters who live in Seoul. Her daughters, all of them college students, think that their mother runs a dressmaker's shop in Busan. Their success is Madam's only wish, but her eldest daughter Seong-hui disappoints her by insisting on marrying a truck driver and aspiring novelist (Kim Jin-kyu). Younger daughter Dong-hui (Kim Hye-jeong) dates a rich man's son (Lee Sang-sa) to Madam's delight, but the young man abandons Dong-hui without a second thought when he tires of her. In despair, Dong-hui comes to Busan in search of her mother, but Madam has already been taken into custody on smuggling charges. After she gets out of prison, Madam is shocked to learn that Dong-hui is working as a prostitute in a bar across from her nightclub, but she continues to hide her identity. Youngest daughter Yang-hui (Tae Hyun-sil), who is a violinist, visits Busan to give a performance before getting married and heading to Germany to study music. She discovers Madam's true profession and, enraged, repudiates her own mother. Dong-hui repents her behavior and comes looking for Madam with Seong-hui, but Madam has already committed suicide.
Notes
"An appeal that crosses the boundary of melodrama" (Kim Young-jin)
The Body Confessions a family melodrama that centers on the relationships among women. By shedding the spotlight on a family that consists of a mother and three daughters without a father in the picture, the film examines the footprints left by modernization on the lives of women. The main protagonist, nightclub owner Madam, is a mother who does not stop at prostitution or smuggling to provide for her daughters. Her one desire is for them to successfully settle in a patriarchal, capitalist society. As a war widow, Madam tries to realize her own frustrated desires through her daughters, and regards marriage as the gateway to success. Torn between her given reality and her future dream, Madam comes to possess a divided identity: she is placed in an irreconcilable social position as both debauched prostitute and self-sacrificing mother. Her body is the site upon which the tension between these two extremes become manifest. The contrast between the traditional Korean dress she wears to meet her daughters and the sexy dress she wears as a nightclub madam overtly reveals this dichotomy. Ultimately, Madam is unable to resolve the contradiction inherent in her own identity. When her younger daughter becomes a prostitute like her and her youngest daughter condemns her life, she chooses death. Even though she has done everything she could as a mother, she remains a prostitute in the end. Through the life of its protagonist, The Body Confession prompts us to look back on how the rapid process of modernization excluded and frustrated women. Hwang Jung-seun, who had always played the role of the traditional mother, attempted a radical image change in this film by donning a low-cut dress, black gloves, and thick makeup. Successfully playing off the image of a charismatic prostitution madam against her existing image as a devoted mother, Hwang effectively conveyed the protagonist's conflicted identity.
Director Bio: Cho Keung-ha (1919-1981)
He graduated from Musashino Music School in Tokyo and ran a photo studio in Daegu while preparing to become a film director. He made his directorial debut in 1957 with Hwang Jin-I(Hwang Jini), based on a screenplay that he wrote. Although he made movies in many different genres, his forte was in melodramas. His most important works, A way of a body (Yugche-ui gil) (1959), Gom (Gom) (1959), A widow (Gwabu) (1960), and The Body Confession (Yukche-ui Gobak) (1964), were melodramas. His other major works include Temporary Government in Shanghai (Sanghae Imsi Jeongbu Wa Kim Gu Seonsaeng) (1969) and Going Well (Jal Doegamnida), which was made in 1968, but wasn't shown in theatres until 1989 because of government censorship.
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